I won't share my FDA since I guess you already know how it looks. There's only one way to play this map anyway - circle strafe and hold down fire. Until all hell breaks loose and there's no where to go if you don't run for the BFG ammo that's revealed on the lowering wall.

I'm so damn tired of these kind of maps. GoS all over and gimmicky as hell. 50% of sf2011 was like this and it sure wasn't fun more than once.

I sound like all the haters, I know. But it's just that this is not fun to play at all IMO. Repetetive and easy, but somehow grindy and not rewarding at all. I used to like GoS maps, but they haven't aged well.

dannebubinga said:
I won't share my FDA since I guess you already know how it looks. There's only one way to play this map anyway - circle strafe and hold down fire. Until all hell breaks loose and there's no where to go if you don't run for the BFG ammo that's revealed on the lowering wall.

I'm so damn tired of these kind of maps. GoS all over and gimmicky as hell. 50% of sf2011 was like this and it sure wasn't fun more than once.

I sound like all the haters, I know. But it's just that this is not fun to play at all IMO. Repetetive and easy, but somehow grindy and not rewarding at all. I used to like GoS maps, but they haven't aged well.

sorry

Err.... well that bombed, I shall print out the map on paper and burn it, or just delete it :P

well I liked it, but I like nearly everything. I agree it's kinda circle-strafy, but I don't think it should be abandoned completely.

some possible improvements:
- reduce HK count a smidge on the ledges
- have the final fight lower cell ammo around the map instead of in that one spot maybe? so players don't get stuck in the side areas

To be honest, I didn't mind it that much. I believe it's very much possible to tune up to more enjoyable dimensions, but with more notable layout overhaul. What I dislike - the boring kind of symmetry on both sides (HKs), lacks a punch (everything thrown at player immediately), rapidly fast gets safe and turns sloggy with minimal threat.

Ideas
- HK wings either need tune-up or removal. Those platforms in the middle of room don't help and hinder shooting.
- Scaling and/or expanding.
- Needs another go at distributing population of some encounters. With the sort of layout you chose, it can be of very hit a miss nature. In comparision, your total recall map is definitely a hit, and this as it is now is rather a miss. Don't bother asking why, because I really wouldn't be able to think of a reason. It may have something with that crampedness just doesn't work well with hordes. Teleporting monsters slowly repopulating map, slower revealing of map chunks or whatever you can think of could help it.

I will probably start again, given the size of the map I want to make, it's quicker to start from scratch again than do massive tweaks. I will see when I can get this done, being distracted by a massive blizzard outside :P

Tried the temple thingie. Eh, the gameplay really didn't do it for me. I'm just not a fan of semi-cramped style in which you get finished off for the pettiest mistake at the speed of light. Maybe I'm just too tired for this atm.

Throwing out an idea before this project gets really far underway for MAP30: a compilation of single arenas from all of the authors involved in the project. I think it'd be neat to end on a bit of a hodge-podge of different styles from the different mappers. You could exit through a tele and plop down into another persons arena. Only issue would be that the gameplay will probably be so varied not many people may like it.

TimeOfDeath said:
Maybe you could start in an area with teleporters to each arena of your choice, then teleport back to start after finishing each arean?

I like this idea since you leave it up to the player which mapper they want to tackle last.

Played your map danne, no FDA, just some feedback. I thought it was going to be a lot harder than it was from that initial setup, but there's quite a few places to hide behind for cover until it settles down more. Picking up the RL was kinda easy too, as the blue candlestick protects you from the cyber and you can keep the revenants safely at bay. AV part was neat, although maybe you could consider block monster lines on the gray area to stop them from dropping off the side or chaingunners getting stuck.

Wasn't feeling the yellow key fight--you tend to like big caco/PE hordes in a lot of your maps which is alright, but they feel like time wasters to me especially since you can run back to the blue key/RL grate and just pelt them with 100 shells until it quiets down. Red key fight was definitely more interesting although it was the hardest part of the map, requiring numerous restarts and honestly feeling too random given the movement patterns of the AVs. I got one lucky run where I was able to hit three of them together about 7 BFG shots into the fight, but I don't think I'd be able to replicate it. Would've liked some health near the red key, as I kept getting over there to attack the AVs but found myself constantly at <50% health and getting chewed up by HK projectiles.

The final fights were alright too although I'm not a fan of the mass AV warp in at the start; since the best strategy I found was to trigger the monsters, then run back and just hold the BFG fire for 20 seconds until all the AVs are gone. Then I played it safe and snipe out the skeletons/cybies... might be more fun just to lock the player in there. It is tough to make battles exciting in a level extended over an acid pit, as most wise tactics come down to sniping... on the plus side, this map is probably one of the biggest anti-circlestrafing maps made for SF.

FDA'd danne's map as well and it's pretty fun. I didn't feel like rushing to keys switches as I felt like fighting instead. Fair map, though I feel trying to jump to the invul will be a bit annoying on the rev side, otherwise I'll need to try harder. Didn't get too far into the map!

hah, so it's a redux of your 'breakout' map, ey? My fda contained a ginormous amount of deaths so I won't post it, the furthest I've made it so far is 400 or so monsters in, this is seriously hectic! Some attempts felt totally at the mercy of rng, if enough AVs decide to target you due to their previous target dying there doesn't seem to be a whole lot I can do about it.

Yeah, a breakout remix :). I did manage to beat it with some close calls, but that was the previous version so didn't make a demo. I only IDDQD ran this version (edited previous post) and don't notice bugs, and it looks much better now (imo).
Yeah it is kinda at the mercy of the random number generator, but its a short map so you only lose a couple minutes of play per each restart. And stuff like card games use lots of random I guess.
If I make another map I think I'll have a lot less viles, and have lots of infighting based battles, however let the player do a lot of shooting too.

charming title as always. here's an fda, gets about halfway through I guess. should be a slightly entertaining demo though, lots of close calls.

despite the flatness and d_runnin the map was actually pretty fun to play. appears to be well balanced thus far, and seems like it could be quite the clusterfuck if you rushed through it. I'll try the later areas playing with saves and such.

Thanks for the fda. I just played w/ saves (trying to go fast/uvmax) and don't like it much. Too much space, dodge everyone except viles which you bfg in the face. Challenging I guess but not in a fun way. All well, it was free.

I found cc4-tex.wad so played danne's last linked map. Cool, sorta the hell revealed 24 "smallish platforms/walkways above lava" genre or whatever. In the part w/ hell knights and some viles, when you first enter there's a crack downward on the side (and maybe all around, didn't check) and its actually possible to fall in with no way to escape (happened to me in my 2nd fda since my first was horrible since I'm retarded and didn't know a platform rose until like 10 attempts. My guess is you made edits by now so it'll probably just desync.). Also I'd probably make those start bars lower faster or less of a distance, just to speed up each restart.
(played again and it seems weird/hard to fall down that crack on purpose but it happened right when I was hit or something).
Maybe for the exit make it really deep and the walk over line triggers a scrolling dummy player that takes a brief moment to walk over an exit line, just so you can visually fall in the exit hole a bit instead of instantly exit before falling in.